Scheltrum

Random Team Generator

Paste a list of names, pick how many teams, and get an even split. Below: how leftovers are shared out, and the odds that two particular people land on the same side.

The list stays in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent to this site.

What this does, and what it cannot do

This splits a list of names you paste into even teams. It does not know real sports teams: it cannot give you a random NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Premier League or Pokemon team, because it holds no list of them. Paste the names or options you want divided and it will divide them – that is the whole of what it does.

When the list will not divide evenly

Spare players are spread one per team, so the biggest and smallest team never differ by more than one.

  • 7 names into 2 teams: 4 and 3
  • 11 names into 3 teams: 4, 4 and 3
  • 13 names into 4 teams: 4, 3, 3 and 3
  • 23 names into 4 teams: 6, 6, 6 and 5

The odds two friends land together

Somebody always asks. In an even split, two named people share a team with probability (team size minus 1) divided by (total minus 1).

Split Chance those two are together
10 into 2 teams of 5 4 in 9 (44.4%)
12 into 3 teams of 4 3 in 11 (27.3%)
20 into 4 teams of 5 4 in 19 (21.1%)
30 into 5 teams of 6 5 in 29 (17.2%)

Even numbers are not even sides

There are 126 ways to cut ten players into two fives, and in one in six of them the three strongest all land on the same side. Random balances headcount, nothing else. If the game matters, seed the strongest few by hand and randomise the rest.

Related

To draw one name at a time instead, use the random name picker. Once teams exist, heads or tails decides who starts; the random picker takes any other list.